Boys playing with a lighter set Lorain house on fire

LifeCare medics carry a child who was taken to the hospital after a fire on West 20th Street in Lorain on Monday. (CT photo by Bruce Bishop.)

LORAIN — Boys playing with a grill lighter caused a 4 p.m. house fire today at 401 W. 20th St., according to Fire Capt. Tom Baker.

Baker said a 3-year-old boy and his 6-year-old brother were in a closet and one set fire to clothes in the first floor closet of the two-floor wood frame home at the intersection of Lexington Avenue. Their 4-year-old brother was outside of the closet. The 6-year-old took the lighter from his younger brother after the fire began, Baker said.

No one was seriously injured in the fire, but Greg Beard, a friend of the boy’s mother, Megan Chronister, was hospitalized at Mercy Regional Medical Center due to smoke inhalation. The 6-year-old was also taken to Mercy for minor smoke inhalation. Beard took the burning clothes out of the home and flames from the clothes caused the side of the house to catch fire, Baker said.

Fire was coming from the southeast corner of the home when firefighters arrived a few minutes after the call. Baker said the fire was extinguished in about three minutes. He said it was too early for a damage estimate. Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Fenn, the fire department’s fire marshal, said the fire could’ve been worse.